Albeit coming from Leonora Piper in trance prurportedly under the control of the Spirit of Sir Walter Scott it is no wonder that the individual finds sceptical humour in this section even the SPR recorders broke down laughing

The transcrpit from teh SPR proceedings Vol 28 1915 follow I make no comment...

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III.SPECIMENS OF INDIVIDUAL CONTROLS.A.SIB WALTER SCOTT CONTROL.Two specimen sittings, June 27 and 28, 1895.Sitter and Recorder, Professor W. Romaine Newbold.(June 27, 1895.)[Writing changes to characteristic Scott hand.]W. S. Good morrow my friend I am now prepared tofinish my discourse or description of spiritual beings.existences etc. Do you remember where I left off ?It was, that is to say we were, in the planet Mars.The lines by the way sir, come with me again, areyou ready Well the lines or spots, so to speak,are not satellites. They are reflections from thesun.W. R. N. Reflections of what ? [hand ignores the question andpursues the calm and even tenor of its way]W. S. Well now we wish to see something of the habitationsof the gentlemen who inhabit this planet. Theirhouses are similar to those on earth yet more modernand much less complicated in structure. Do youwish to speak to me sir as we pass ?W. R. N. Yes, of what are they made and how ?W. S. They are made from various kinds of material such asbrick, stone, etc.438 Mrs. Henry Sidgwick. [PARTW. R. N. These are the houses on the planet Mars of which youare speaking ?W. S. I am, yet we do not compare them exactly with thoseon earth. They are made according to natural causesand such atmospheric conditions as it is necessaryfrom such materials.W. R. N. Tell me more about the atmospheric conditions.W. S. I think that I have done so upon other occasions sir,and were you the gentleman to whom I gave them ?W. R. N. Not to me, Sir Walter, but to a friend of mine. I haveread what you said, and I think you did not say anythingof the atmosphere.W. S. Well, pardon me sir, I will then. The planet, as wesee it materially is rather cold. For instance, thereare icebergs and many of them on this planet i.e. onsome parts of it ; in others it is warmer and enoughso to produce vegetation. There are some very beautifultrees, flowers, etc.W. R. N. Is the climate fair or cloudy ?W. S. Very fair, it is in the torrid zone.W. R. N. You mean it is fair in the torrid zone of Mars ?W. S. Yes, this only.W. R. N. Are there inhabitants in other planets ?W. S. Such as Jupiter ? Well let me ask what you are dreamingabout sir [I misunderstand and think writer isreproving me for asking such a question of Jupiter,since I knew well that it was not in a condition tosupport life, so I say]W. R. N. I said nothing of Jupiter, Sir Walter ; I merely askedwhether there is life in any other planets.W. S. There was a little misunderstanding I think, as we arenow riding through the air.W. R. N. I beg your pardon ; go on.W. S. we now leave the planet Mars and we wish to visit others.First we think of Jupiter. Well as we ride we beginto discern [for pencil] Thanks something whichto us looks like a dark jagged ball or rock. Well aswe draw nearer we seem to discover smoke as it seems,then still more of the darkness. Now we are nearingthe planet. As we draw nearer we begin to see sparksLXXI.] Psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance. Appendix. 439which remind us of fire. Now we pass through atremendously stifling atmosphereW. R. N. Not stifling to you ?W. S. Oh no sir, I am the spirit or life, you are the materialman whom I am taking with me as my guest. Youseem choked, and yet you ask me to go on. Well,now we wish to pass through this fog of seeminglysmoke, fire, electricity, as Mr. Pelham terms it. Iborrowed the phrase sir, and now we begin to reachthe planet Jupiter. We pass around the surface peepinginto it ... onto it ... and we see nothing ofany importance except the continual sparks, so called,which conglomerate together and as yet are in a veryunsettled stateW. R. N. Take me further.W. S. This all seems to us strange and interesting. We seeall in one mass a conglomeration of atmospheres whichwhen settled in one body looks like a planet.W. R. N. Then Jupiter is not solid ?W. S. Not at all solid.W. R. N. Take me elsewhere, especially where there is life.W. S. What is the general idea of Jupiter on your planet sir ?W. R. N. I know little astronomy, Sir Walter, but I think Jupiteris believed to be a red hot solid surrounded by densecloudsW. S. But it is not at all solid as we can pass through it.W. R. N. Take me where there is life.W. S. Venus W. R. N. Good.W. S. so termed is inhabited [Medium's head falls from thecushion. I say]W. R. N. Wait a moment Sir Walter while I fix the head of themedium in place.W. S. Yes sir. [Hand stops writing until the head is again. firmly set in place. Phinuit thanks me in stifledtones. I ask whether the light is going out. Handreplies]W. S. The light so called ? No sir. Now sir, we will leaveJupiter and visit Saturn. Well as we have nothingmuch to see there we will first visit Venus. Venusyou will remember on earth looks like a very beautiful440 Mrs. Henry Sidgwick. [PARTand bright star. Well now we wish to learn all wecan concerning this planet so now we start. Wepass through a long ... of light, so called sky andwe pass on very rapidly until we begin are you tiredsir ?W. R. N. No, indeed. Go on.W. S. to feel very much pleased with the atmospheric conditionsthrough which we are passing. We smell themost delightful odors possible for the human mindto understand or sense. Now all is life, light, theair is as balmy and soft as a spring morning onearth. Now we realise that we are approaching Venus.We pass on still in this delightful atmosphere. Nowour eyes are open and we see insects of all kinds anddescriptions, birds of every known [hand hesitatesfor some time and then writes] descriptionW. R. N. You had species in mind, had you not ?W. 8. species, yes sir, this was exactly the expression whichI wish to express or use their plumage is to yousomething magnificent and indescribable. We see themflitting about from one place to another, apparentlyin space, yet as we move on we begin to realize thatwe are approaching something more tangible. Nowwe see the heavens aglow with light, the perfumeheavenly. The atmosphere warm, balmy, beautiful,too much so to put in words and express. Now wefeel a slight breeze and we are wafted through theouter rim as it were into a perfect little heaven byitself. Nothing ever realized on earth could comparewith this. Now we see no one, i. e. no livingbeing so to speak, only these beautiful creatures thetrees Like wax, the flowers like the true soul as it were,they are so really beautiful, the fields are one massof green, the flowers of various hues, yet we see not aman anywhere. We wonder where they all are, wetravel for miles and miles, yet we see nothing butinsects and birds i.e. Living. We wish to ascertainwhy this is thus . . . yes sir ... we breathe thedelightful odor while we remain, yet we still see noliving being . . . why . . . why . . . because of theLXXI.] Psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance. Appendix. 441marvellous atmosphere. They are sensitive to thisand cannot survive it.W. R. N. Did they ever exist ? W. S. Oh no, sir.W. R. N. You mean then that Venus is passing through a stageanalogous to the carboniferous era on the earth ?W. S. I do, only it is more perfect and real at this stage.Birds, insects and flowers grow in this atmosphereonly when the time comes for the flowers to decaythey simply droop, wither and fall, then immediatelyothers spring up and fill their places. Now we stopfor a moment and wish that we could remain here foralways, yet we are not satisfied, we long to see more.Now we must go ... pass ... on and leave thisbeautiful godlike heaven or planet as it were [myhand is resting on the paper. The writing hand collideswith it, stops, feels it, finger by finger, writes :]What is that please, sir ?W. R. N. My hand.W. S. Best not disturb me [I, misunderstanding, explain thatI lift the writing hand while I turn the pages of theblock book] Oh thanks not that sir ; it was here[tapping the spot where my hand had rested] it'sall right sir, pardon me if you please.Now we wish to visit other places yet we long to remainhere, however we must not, we must go on or in otherwords pass on. Now we wish to find the sun. Wemove out of Venus, slowly, unwillingly, yet on wepass until we have reached the outer sphere again.Now we move on towards the sun, but at first wefeel extremely uncomfortable after having left Venus,yet we begin to become accustomed to the atmosphereand now on we go ... on we move ... inour air vessel towards the sun. We draw nearer andnearer until we begin to feel as though we were suffocatingagain and as we move on we still continue tofeel uncomfortable until we reach this planet, whenthe atmosphere begins to clear a little. Now weexcuse the mixture of nouns and pronouns, sir, wethen reach the sun, and we feel coldW. R. N. Cold ?442 Mrs. Henry Sidgwick. [PARTW. S. Yes sir we have passed beyond the limit of the formerplanets and we feel the various changes as we move.Now the extreme change takes place, & we feel intenselyhot, as we approach it. Now all is fire, thefire is intense we do not wish to move on, so now wefind this one centre of heatW. R. N. Can you, a spirit, feel the heat ? [Finger points deliberatelyat me, then hand writes,]W. S. You, yet I [I express comprehension] pardon, yes sir,yet I wish you to imagine yourself a spirit wellnow. . . .W. R. N. Sir Walter, is the sun all fire, or has it a solid core ?W. S. The word is not familiar to me, sir. [I explain] OhThere is a solid body, sir, which I am now going totake you to see. We feel destined to reach this foundationi.e. you desire to do so. Well now we moveon towards this fire, now reach its borders and notwithstandingthe extreme heat we pass through it andwe find ourselves upon a solid bed of hot clay or sand.This is caused by gravity understand where we arewe have now reached the limit, we find it very warmand deserted like a deserted island. We wish to findits inhabitants if there are any i.e. if it has any. Nowwe see what we term monkeys, dreadful looking creatures,black extremely black, very wild. We findthey live in caves which are made in the sand or mud,clay etc. Now, sir for that I will be obliged to discontinueour journey until some future time.W. R. N. Will you come again ?W. S. Yes, I will look down upon your planet and find youout. Good morrow, my friend. Leave the sun orin other words we will remain in it. AdieuW(June 28, 1895.)W. S. [Writing] I am here to take you to ... for thepurpose of continuing our journey together.W. R. N. Before we start, Sir Walter, I would like to ask somequestions.W. S.' Ah. I see that you remember me.LXXI.] Psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance. Appendix. 443W. R. N. You told me the canals or lines which we see on Marsare reflections. Of what ?W. S. Yes, sir, but let me say sir that before I left you I foundout afterward that I had taken you through theplanet, viz. sun and that we had followed it all theway to the earth. Well sir we were beginning to seemonkeys, don't you recall ?W. R. N. Yes, and this I could not understand and meant to askyou.W. S. No you do not understand my idea [The left handbegins to gesticulate rapidly, I think it was tryingto use the deaf-mute language] We went to the sunand experienced heat. Well then we found it unbearablyhot.W. R. N. Won't you tell that other spirit to go ?W. S. He is going sir. Then sir. Well then we began tofollow its light as far as the tropic of Capricorn, whenwe reached the earth of course, here we saw themonkeys flying in and out of sand caves. There Ibegan to lose my grasp on the light.W. R. N. May I ask a question ? W. S. Yes sir.W R. N. Is the sun a mass of incandescent vapor or does it containa solid centre ?W. S. It is simply as a planet a mass of heat and lava.W. R. N. What are the sun spots ?W. S. This is the shadow of the earth sir.W. R. N. You are thinking of eclipses. I understand this, butI mean the black spots sometimes seen on the sun ?W. S. Oh I beg pardon sir, I did not understand yourquestion, thoughts,W. R. N. I beg your pardon.W. S. No sir, I understand now the spots on the sun are . . .yes sir ... are the so called satellites which surroundit, this produces a dark mass of spots. [I askagain about the canals of Mars] First sir let me askwhat is your meaning. Why do you use the term ?W. R. N. Some astronomers have supposed these marks to becanals.W. S. What definition do they give to the word, sir ?W. R. N. A canal is a large trench or ditch, cut that water may444 Mrs. Henry Sidgwick. [PARTflow through it. These marks are supposed to besomething of the kind.W. S On Mars and discernible from earth ? Well they arenot openings at [all] sir, but are reflections causedby certain lights from the sun sir which brings tothe eye a dim aspect which looks like straight linesyet they are the peaks and shadows of the mountainousregion in the planet Mars and can only beseen under certain conditions of light from thesun.W. R. N. Let us go on to Saturn and then tell me of the destinyof the human spirit.W. S. Yes sir, delighted, this is as much a pleasure to me asto yourself sir, as to you. Remember we werefollowing the sun and we finally came to earth becausemore particularly of exhaustion. Well do you understandnow that we do not find animal or vegetablelife in the sun.W. R. N. I am glad to hear that, for it troubled us.W. S. Oh you could not have thought that I wished to conveythe idea that there were actually monkeys livingin the sun, sir.W. R. N. Take me on further.W. S. Yes sir, I will now take you to the moon whichis opaque. We find here mountains and valleys only,consequently we do not wish to remain. Excuse me,sir, a moment. Who was the gentleman with whomI saw you seemingly laughing over my journeys withyou ! Actually laughing . . . yes sir ... and roaringenough to split the canopy of heavenW. R. N. That was Dr. Hodgson who is doing more to establishthe truth of spirit communication than almost anyone living. We were laughing chiefly at the statementthat there were monkeys in the sun. I begyour pardon.11 Dr. Newbold says about this (Proceedings, Vol. XIV., pp. 48-49) :" That night {i.e. June 27} while writing up the sitting at Dr. Hodgson'srooms, ten miles from Mrs. Piper, Dr. Hodgson and I fell to laughingover this preposterous statement {about monkeys in the sun} ; so loudlyindeed did we laugh that I finally cautioned Dr. H. that we should bewakening the whole block.. Scott.

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For interest despite this rather extraordinary communication there were significant reasons why Leonora Piper was so highly ratedAlmost the entire proceedings of 1915 concern her as she was so heavily researched by the SPR. In teh introduction all the then SPR papers are listed

To show thisPROCEEDINGSOF THESociety for Psychical Research.PART LXXI.DECEMBER, 1915.A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THEPSYCHOLOGY OF MRS. PIPER'S TRANCEPHENOMENA.BY MRS. HENRY SIDGWICK.PREFACE.The main interest of Mrs. Piper's trance phenomena liesundoubtedly in the evidence they afford of knowledge acquiredotherwise than through the senses whether from the livingor from the dead. This evidence has been set forth anddiscussed in numerous papers in the Proceedings, of whicha list is given below. To these papers I must refer thosewho are interested only in such evidential matter. For inthe present paper they will not find what they want. Thereis no attempt in it to give any of the evidence for supernormalpowers, with which it is concerned only incidentally.Its object is to throw light on the working of the tranceii Mrs. Henry Sidgwick. [PARTconsciousnesses from a psychological point of view, and, amongother things, on the question whether the intelligence that speaksor writes in the trance, and is sometimes in telepathic communicationwith other minds (whether of the living or ofthe dead), is other than a phase, or centre of consciousness,of Mrs. Piper herself.A LIST OF PAPERS CONCERNING MRS. PIPERPREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE PROCEEDINGSVol. VI. (1890), pp. 136-659. "A Record of Observationsof Certain I na of Trance," by F. W. H. Myers,Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr. Walter Leaf and Professor William.lames.This deals with the sittings m Ki.irliimi in 1889-1890.Vol. VIII. (1892), pp. 1-168. "A Record of Observations ofCertain Phenomena of Trance," by Dr Richard Hodgson.This deals with sittings in America from 1886 to 1891.Vol. XIII. (1898), pp. 284-682. "A Further Record of Observationsof Certain Phenomena of Trance," by DrR. Hodgson.This deals with sittings in America from 1892 M 1895.Vol. XIV. (1898), pp. 6-49. "A Further Record ..f Observationsof Certain Phenomena of Trance," by ProfessorRomaine Newbold.This deals with sittings with which Professor Newboldwas concerned from 1891 to 1895.LXXI.] Psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance. Papers. iiiVol. XVI. (1901), pp. 1-649. "A Further Record of Observationsof Certain Trance Phenomena," by ProfessorJ. H. Hyslop.This deals with Professor Hyslop's sittings in 1898-1899,and contains also accounts of certain experiments by him,and discussions. Professor Hyslop has published accountsof his later sittings in the Proceedings of the [new] AmericanSociety for Psychical Research.Vol. XXII. (1908), pp. 19-440. "A Series of ConcordantAutomatisms," by Mr. J. G. Piddington.This deals with concordant automatisms between Mrs.Piper and other automatists, and some experiments duringher visit to England in 1906-7.Vol. XXIII. (1909), pp. 2-121. "Report on Mrs. Piper'sHodgson-Control," by Professor William James.This records and discusses the Hodgsonp communicationswhether as control or communicator during the year followinghis death, namely 1906.Vol. XXIII. (1909), pp. 127-280. "Report on some TranceCommunications received chiefly through Mrs. Piper,"by Sir Oliver Lodge.Most of this paper is concerned with sittings with Mrs.Piper arranged for by Sir Oliver Lodge, and at whichhe was generally present, in England, in 1889, 1890, 1906,1907. Two sittings in 1905 in America are included.Vol. XXIV. (1910), pp. 31-200. "Further Experiments withMrs. Piper in 1908," by Mrs. H. Sidgwick, Mrs. A. W.Verrall and Mr. J. G. Piddingfcon.This deals with Mr. G. B. Dorr's sittings in America in 1908.Vol. XXIV. (1910), pp. 351-664. "Report on the JunotSittings with Mrs. Piper," by Miss H. de G. Verrall.This gives the record of all" Bennie Junot's" communicationsfrom 1899-1905.a2iv Mrs. Henry Sidgtoick. [PARTAll the above papers are primarily concerned with th<>exhibition in Mrs. Piper's trances of knowledge supern<>nn.illyacquired, though incidentally some other points are discussed.There have also appeared in the Proceedings four papersdiscussing the published evidence, viz. :Vol. XTV. (1898), pp. 60-78. "Discussion of the TrancePhenomena of Mrs. Piper," by F. Podmore.This paper takes the view that there is undoubtedlytelepathy with the living, but insufficient evidence to jn-.>vanythingfurther. The Piper phenomena are compared withthose of Adele Maginot and others.Vol. XV. (1900), pp. 16-38."Discussion of the TrancePhenomena of Mrs. Piper," by Mrs. Henry SidgwiThis paper takes the view that, assuming there is communicationwith the dead through Mrs. Piper, the evidencepoiints to it being telepathic in character.Vol. XV. (1900), pp. 39-62. "Discussion of the TrancePhenomena of Leonora. Piper," by Andrew Lang.This paper is described by its author as"Reflections on Mrs.Piper and Telepathy."Vol. XXVI. (1912), pp. 147-173. "The Latin Message Experiment,"by Bin. Anna Hude (with Note on same byMr. J. G. Piddington).This discusses one of the experiments in 1906-7 an publishedin Vol. XXII.